Carter counsel: Roy would’ve committed suicide regardless
Lawyers for Michelle Carter said her high school boyfriend was going to kill himself regardless of whether or not their client encouraged him to, pointing to internet searches where the troubled teen sought out ways to commit suicide.
“Easy, quick and painless ways to commit suicide?” Conrad Roy III asked in an online search, according to evidence presented by Carter’s defense team yesterday in her manslaughter trial in Taunton.
On June 28, 2014, he Googled: “suicide by cop.”
The searches were shown to the court by Carter’s defense team, who had Steven Verronneau, an electronic forensic investigator, scour computers and phones used by both Carter and Roy.
In another June 2014 internet search, the question “I want to kill myself, what meds shall I take to die while sleeping?” was shown by Joseph Cataldo, Carter’s lead defense attorney, to a silent courtroom.
Roy was found dead in his truck in a Fairhaven Kmart parking lot on July 13, 2014. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Roy used a portable generator and a water pump to fill his vehicle with deadly fumes, according to authorities.
Verronneau said that on July 11, 2014, Roy sent Carter an image of a portable generator.
Judge Lawrence Moniz, who will serve as judge and jury in the bench trial, told Cataldo that he would go through the searches and images himself.
When cross examined by Bristol prosecutor Katie Rayburn, Verronneau admitted that there were photos extracted that showed Roy happy with his family.
Carter’s defense team also brought forward police officers who responded to a domestic violence incident involving Roy and his father. Cataldo has argued in the past that some of Roy’s mental issues stemmed from a stressful family life.
On Monday, Carter’s key witness — Dr. Peter Breggin — will testify about the effects that antidepressant drugs, including Celexa, have on juveniles and young adults. It has been alleged that Carter and Roy were both on the drug, and Breggin “may testify as to the defendant’s mental condition” or her “criminal responsibility,” according to court documents.
During a pretrial hearing in March, Breggin testified that Carter was “involuntarily intoxicated” by antidepressants when she sent text messages encouraging Roy to kill himself.
Cataldo and co-counsel Corey Madera asked Moniz to throw out the case yesterday, arguing that prosecutors gave the judge insufficient evidence to find their client guilty.
After retiring to his chambers for more than an hour, Moniz came back out and said the defense motion was denied and ordered Carter’s team to call their witnesses.